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Recently, the Chicago police have killed 6 people and shot 12 within a period of four weeks. The corporate media in the city remains silent on this outrageous rampage unleashed on the people, instead focusing on the propaganda of the police in relation to youth violence. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis announced an Iraq-esque militarized “surge” of police in the city to intimidate and terrorize communities, including conducting roll calls in the streets with patrol cars blaring sirens and flashing lights and SWAT teams in full gear. Weis has admitted that his goal is to intimidate the people with a militarized presence: “When people see police officers in uniform like this, it sends a message. I’ll admit they are a little intimidating and they do have more of a military presence, but if that will cause people to disperse an area or maybe not engage in criminal activity, I’m willing to send that message.”

Opposing this murderous rampage and campaign of intimidation and terror by the Chicago police is vitally important. To that end, a contingent marched this weekend in the Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States.

A huge banner reading “Get in the Streets to Stop Police Terror! Indict – Convict – Jail the Killer Cops” was banned from entering the parade by parade organizers and police. A police sergeant stated that he didn’t want signs exposing and protesting the police shootings to “rile up the crowd.” Above is a picture of the banned sign, and below is a shot of the parade organizers and gang of police that stopped the sign from entering the parade.

Eventually the contingent was allowed to march in the parade, carrying and passing out 15,000 Revolution newspaper broadsheets with the headline “Chicago Cops Shoot 12, Kill 6 in 4 Weeks: Trigger Happy Police… and a Criminal System”, as well as posters of the victims. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the contingent was the only one in the entire parade to have four police ATVs “escorting” it the through the entire parade.

Many people in the parade threw up the fist and chanted along with the contingent calling for the indictment, conviction, and jailing of the killer cops. Others along the parade route were stopped by the police from entering and joining the contingent.

At the end of the parade, it started pouring rain, and people took shelter under a roof of a Citgo gas station. There was a massive police presence there, including numerous police on horses pushing through the crowd and several police wagons. After a period of time, the police announced to the people huddling under the roof to escape the torrential downpour that if they didn’t leave within 5 minutes they would all be leaving in the police wagons…